File:Rafinesque_Constantine_Samuel_1783-1840.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
Sign in to saveAlso known as Rafinesque, Raf., Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, C. S. Rafinesque
French naturalist (1783-1840)
Key facts
- Born
- Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz , ( 1783-10-22 ) 22 October 1783, Galata , Constantinople , Ottoman Empire
- Died
- 18 September 1840 (1840-09-18) (aged 56), Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, U.S.
- Fields
- Biologist
- Author abbrev botany
- Raf.
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Samuel
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Constantinople
- Place of death
- Philadelphia
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- botany
- Image
- Rafinesque Constantine Samuel 1783-1840.png
Show 13 more facts
- date of death
- 1840-09-18
- date of birth
- 1783-10-22
- author citation (zoology)
- Rafinesque
- member of
- American Antiquarian Society
- cause of death
- stomach cancer
- Commons category
- Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
- manner of death
- natural causes
- Commons gallery
- Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz
- writing language
- English language
- name in native language
- Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz
- P8168
- Bochner
- collection items at
- National Museum of Natural History
via Wikidata · CC0
~18 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz ( French pronunciation: [kɔ̃stɑ̃tin(ə) samɥɛl ʁafinɛsk(ə)ʃmalts]) (October 22, 1783 – September 18, 1840) was a French polymath of the early 19th century. Born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, he was self-educated in France.
As a young man, Rafinesque-Schmaltz traveled to the United States, eventually settling in Ohio in 1815. There, he made significant contributions to botany, zoology, and the study of prehistoric earthworks in North America. Beyond his previous extensive work in Europe, he also contributed to the study of ancient Mesoamerican linguistics. In 1836, Rafinesque was the first person to use the term Taíno as a way of referring to the Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Constantine Samuel Rafinesque” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.